The Creation and Administration of Unique Identifiers, 1967-2017 2
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[AUTHOR] 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ......................................................................................................... 4 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Objectives .................................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Scope ............................................................................................................................................ 8 1.3 Method ...................................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 Summary of Findings ................................................................................................................. 14 2 INSTANTIATING THE UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS (1969-2017) .......................... 17 2.1 The Arpanet .............................................................................................................................. 17 2.1.1 Host Addresses ................................................................................................................................ 22 2.1.2 Multiplexing Numbers .................................................................................................................... 23 2.1.3 Host Names ..................................................................................................................................... 25 2.1.4 Declarative Specifications ............................................................................................................... 27 2.2 The Internet .............................................................................................................................. 28 2.2.1 Internet Protocol (IP) Address ....................................................................................................... 29 2.2.2 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Ports .................................................................................. 31 2.2.3 Network Numbers ........................................................................................................................... 33 2.2.4 Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) ........................................................................................... 33 2.2.5 Host Names ..................................................................................................................................... 35 2.2.6 Domain Name System (DNS) ......................................................................................................... 36 2.2.7 Protocol Parameters ....................................................................................................................... 38 3 OPERATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (1969-2017) .............................................. 39 3.1 Network Working Group (NWG) (1969-c.1980) ....................................................................... 39 3.2 Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (BBN) (1969-92) ..................................................................... 43 3.3 Stanford Research Institute Network Information Center (SRI and DDN NIC) (1969-91) ..... 45 3.4 Root Server Operators ............................................................................................................... 48 3.5 University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute (USC-ISI) (1976-98) .......... 50 3.6 Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) and Verisign (1991-2017) .......................................................... 53 3.7 ICANN IANA Department (1999-2017) and Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) (2016-17) ..... 55 The Creation and Administration of Unique Identifiers, 1967-2017 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3.8 Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) .......................................................................................... 59 4 PRE-ICANN POLICY ADVISORY AND COORDINATION ORGANIZATIONS (1975-99) .............................................................................. 60 4.1 Arpanet Sponsors Group (1975-83) ........................................................................................... 60 4.2 Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB) (1979-84) .......................................................... 61 4.3 Internet Advisory Board (IAB), Internet Activities Board (IAB), Internet Architecture Board (IAB) (1984-2017) ...................................................................................................................... 62 4.4 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) (1986-2017), Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) (1989-2017) .................................................................................................................... 66 5 POLICY SETTING ORGANIZATIONS (1968-2017) .......................................... 68 5.1 The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (1968-98) .................................. 69 5.2 Defense Communications Agency (DCA) and Defense Data Network Program Management Office (DDN PMO) (1975-92) ................................................................................................... 74 5.3 National Science Foundation (1982-98) ..................................................................................... 76 5.4 Federal Research Internet Coordinating Committee (FRICC) (1987-90), Federal Networking Council (FNC) (1990-97) ........................................................................................................... 81 5.5 U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) (1997-2016) ................................................................... 83 5.6 Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) (1992-2017) ...................................................................... 87 5.7 IANA Functions and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) (1998-2017) ................................................................................................................................ 89 5.7.1 IANA Functions Stewardship Transition Agreements .................................................................... 90 5.7.1.1 DOC-ICANN Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Joint Project Agreement (JPA), and Affirmation of Commitments (AOC) .............................................................................................. 90 5.7.1.2 USC-ICANN Transition Agreement ................................................................................................ 93 5.7.1.3 NTIA-NIST-ICANN Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) .................... 93 5.7.1.4 DOC-ICANN InterNIC® Agreement ................................................................................................ 94 5.7.1.5 DOC-ICANN IANA Functions Contracts ....................................................................................... 94 5.7.2 IANA Functions Stewardship Transition (IANA Stewardship Transition) Process and Implementation Agreements ........................................................................................................... 96 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................... 100 7 SOURCES ........................................................................................................... 101 The Creation and Administration of Unique Identifiers, 1967-2017 3 FOREWORD FOREWORD Vinton G. Cerf Stephen D. Crocker VP, Google CEO, Shinkuro, Inc. Former Chairman, ICANN Former Chairman, ICANN As the Arpanet and Internet evolved, the role and importance of unique identifiers increased markedly. At first, the creation and administration of the necessary identifiers was a small matter and handled as an implicit task within the contracts for the overall network development. Over time, the creation and administration of unique identifiers evolved into a visible and important activity on its own. The Arpanet project was started in 1968 by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), now called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It aimed at applying packet switching to computer communication. It developed a layered protocol architecture for host-to-host communication, which included a variety of identifiers necessary for referencing hosts on the network and labeling key parameters of the protocols used to support networked applications. With support from ARPA and experience gained from the Arpanet project, the Internet’s design began in 1973 to be a highly distributed, scalable, and adaptable network of networks. It inherited many of the concepts and institutions emerging from the development of the Arpanet, including the need for identifiers of various kinds. It was concluded that memorable names for the hosts on each network and numeric addresses and identifiers would be needed for uniquely distinguishing the hosts and networks that make up the Internet. The many communication protocols required to implement applications or supporting infrastructure of the Internet also had configuration parameters that needed unique identifiers for reference. In recognition of the emergent central role of identifiers, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Google commissioned this report to document the design, evolution, and management of the Internet’s unique identifiers. It draws upon considerable input from the Internet community as well as in-depth research by the report’s authors, Bradley Fidler and Russ Mundy. The report offers the